


bothered

by foxmagpie



Series: little black dress and practical heels [7]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: (an attempt at) getting to know each other, Bold!Beth, F/M, Flirting, Pre-Bathroom Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-12 22:36:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20572064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxmagpie/pseuds/foxmagpie
Summary: Rio arches a brow at her in question, and Beth knows, instinctively, that he’ll follow her lead. If she wants to ditch the plan, he’ll roll with it. And while usually changing her mind about sex makes her queasy with guilt (god, the sighs Dean would make, the disappointment he’d wear in his slouch), Beth doesn’t feel it here. It’s almost… empowering to know Rio respects her decision. Empowering enough to make her feel, all over again, how badly she wants him.God, she thinks. Can I make up my mind?Then again, maybe this is what being out-of-control feels like. The world’s at her feet, and Beth can do whatever she wants.A tall brunette steps out of the bathroom and glances at the two of them before disappearing into the crowd.“Well?” Beth asks, holding out her hand for him to take. “What are we waiting for?”Eyes darting around to the various bodies around them—and to the couple that was staring at them earlier, who seem to have lost interest—Beth’s nearly certain nobody notices as Rio slips in behind her.





	bothered

Beth’s heart is pounding as she weaves through the crowd of people on the dance floor, Rio close at her back. The alcohol has made her feel lightweight and loose, like the tension she usually holds in her body has dissipated. She’s been having fun being flirty and even a little—she thinks—scandalous. Biting her lip, Beth can’t _ believe _ she’s instigating a second attempt at public sex—or that she’d whispered into his ear that she’s not wearing panties under her dress. 

Who _ is _ she when she’s around Rio? She’s not quite sure, but Beth likes this version of herself, the one she only allows herself to be when she’s with him. Normally, everything about her is tightly controlled by schedules and appointments and rules—things she needs to make the chaos of her life bearable. With him, she gets to lean into the chaos. Chase it a little. She wouldn’t have expected it but—she _ likes _ it. She’s nervous as hell, but there’s something almost… almost _ fun _about that. 

He doesn’t seem to mind when she’s a little on edge and a little demanding. She’s not shrinking herself around him like she has so much before. She’d hated sitting in her house waiting for him with no schedule, but she had felt him _ goading _ her into a fight when he’d arrived at her door—and she didn’t feel like the whole thing would fall apart if she’d felt like giving in to it. He wasn’t afraid to be irritating. It gave her space to—to not be _ perfect _ and _ accommodating _ all the time. 

It was a strange breath of fresh air. 

The music rings in her ears as Beth reaches for the door handle of the women’s room. Rio closes the small gap between them and glues himself to her, pressing his lips to the side of her neck. Even though they’d barely danced, she can smell a light sheen of sweat on his skin—the result of being in a small, dark space with so many people. 

“It’s locked,” Beth says, crestfallen, when she jiggles the handle.

“It’ll just be a minute,” Rio promises, mouth hot on her skin. 

Beth squirms away. She can feel the eyes of strangers not five feet away on her. Judging. Knowing what she’s about to do, surely. 

When Beth turns to look at Rio, he’s smirking at her, eyes dark. It sends a jolt of electricity through her body. 

She hadn’t expected that they would have to _ wait. _

Beth leans up against the wall outside the restroom door. Not sure what to do with her hands, she slides them between her back and the wall, leans onto them so that she traps them away from reaching out and running her fingers across his lips or the bold lines of his tattoo. 

Rio’s looking at her intensely, as if she’s the only thing in the room, and Beth can’t help but drop her gaze to the floor. Rio’s wearing Converse, which surprises her a bit. Doesn’t fit into the image she has of him so far. Doesn’t match the $70,000 car that was so clean it may as well have been a rental. 

She’s staring at the shoes, feeling awkward as they wait for someone else to finish her business so that they can start theirs. The confidence she’d had just minutes ago seems to be leaking out of her like a deflating balloon. 

“You a’ight?” Rio asks, and Beth can’t believe how quickly he always seems to read her. She sees his shoes inch closer to hers, feels his body heat emanating off of him.

She can’t back down now. It would be embarrassing—from sexy overconfidence to complete self-doubt in two minutes flat. She sees Rio’s hand start to reach for her, and she just knows he’s going to tip her chin up at him. 

She looks up at him first, before he can do it, and his hand freezes and then falls back to his side. His eyes brighten, like he’s impressed.

Beth gives Rio a crooked little smile. His face softens, and he grins at her. It’s_ cute _—different from the usual smoldering looks he gives her. 

_ He likes me _ , Beth thinks suddenly, surprising herself—because it feels almost egotistical to believe it. It was one thing to know and play on his _ attraction _ to her, but it’s a whole other thing to think that there might be something more brewing between them. 

Not even realizing she’s doing it, Beth shakes her head. She’s skipping steps, getting too far ahead of herself. They barely _ know _ each other—how could he _ like _ her? 

“What you thinkin’ over there?” Rio asks, brow furrowing. 

“What?” Beth asks, voice thick, as if she’s not sure what he’s just said. 

Slowly, Rio reaches out and brushes her bangs off her forehead. He lets his pinky finger trail down her cheek, and it does something to her, feeling his skin on hers. 

“You’re stressin’,” he says softly. “Overthinkin’ somethin’.”

Beth grimaces, running her tongue between her teeth and feeling their sharp edges. She’s not about to _ admit _it. 

“No. I’m fine.”

“Lie.”

A small breathless laugh escapes her throat. “Game’s over, isn’t it?”

“You keep lyin’, we keep playin’.” He says it like a challenge. 

“I—“ Beth starts, but then they hear the sound of a flushing toilet and the spray of the faucet being turned on through the thin wall behind them. 

Rio arches a brow at her in question, and Beth knows, instinctively, that he’ll follow her lead. If she wants to ditch the plan, he’ll roll with it. And while usually changing her mind about sex makes her queasy with guilt (god, the _ sighs _ Dean would make, the disappointment he’d wear in his _ slouch _ ), Beth doesn’t feel it here. It’s almost… _ empowering _ to know Rio respects her decision. Empowering enough to make her feel, all over again, how badly she wants him. 

_ God _ , she thinks. _ Can I make up my mind? _

Then again, maybe this is what being out-of-control feels like. The world’s at her feet, and Beth can do whatever she wants. 

A tall brunette steps out of the bathroom and glances at the two of them before disappearing into the crowd.

“Well?” Beth asks, holding out her hand for him to take. “What are we waiting for?”

Eyes darting around to the various bodies around them—and to the couple that was staring at them earlier, who now seem to have lost interest—Beth’s nearly certain nobody notices as Rio slips in behind her.

* * *

Once they’re in the bathroom, Rio crowds her space until she’s backed against the wall opposite the sink and mirror, but—just inches from her lips—he stops. Apparently, he wants _ her _ to make the next move. He’s just looking at her, a faint smile on his lips. Waiting.

Beth pauses. Lets the moment stretch out between them. Lets the tension wrap around their throats so that it’s difficult to breathe, staring at each other like this. 

She doesn’t know why—it’s absurd, honestly, considering their brief but intense history—yet, suddenly it feels like _ this _ is about to be their first kiss. 

Annie had told Beth once that she loves the moment before a first kiss maybe even more than the kiss itself. Beth had never understood it, having only Dean and a middle school boyfriend as a comparison point. There hadn’t even _ been _ a moment before the first kiss with Dean. She’d been nervously staring at his chest while they slow danced to some Kenny Loggins song at prom when suddenly he’d bent his knees to crouch down to her level. His lips were crashing onto hers before she could even register what was happening. 

_ Now _ Beth gets it. Her legs feel weak and her breaths are heavy as Rio’s smile fades and his expression turns into something serious and contemplative. He studies her lips through his long lashes. Without seeming to realize it, he skims his tongue along his plump bottom lip, wetting it. He leans slightly closer to her, tilting his head down, pushing her to do _ something _, as he puts his arm up to steady himself against the wall.

She wants him. More than she’s wanted anything, she thinks, in a long, long time. It licks at her low in her belly, but there’s also something blooming in her chest. She’s absolutely wrecked by how beautiful he is—and by the way he keeps looking at her.

“Well?” Rio teases, voice quiet. “What are you waiting for?”

“Nothing,” Beth admits quietly. “I just… like this moment.”

“Yeah?” Rio asks, and it should be impossible, but somehow he comes even _ closer _ to her mouth without yet touching her.

Beth nods with quick small movements, swallowing her nerves back down. “Don’t—don’t you?”

Rio takes his bottom lip between his teeth, but he nods back at her. 

She believes him, so she kisses him. Finally.

Annie’s wrong. As great as _ that _ was, it has nothing on _ this _. His lips are soft against hers, and the hand he’s not leaning into on the wall squeezes at her hip. 

Everything else seems to disappear. There’s no music thumping on the other side of the wall, no crowd of people dancing feet away from them, certainly no line forming outside the bathroom door. It’s just the two of them, absolutely lost in each other. 

Rio makes a noise in the back of his throat, some sort of combination of a hum and a groan, and Beth slides her hands up his chest, up and up and up, until she’s cupping his face gently in her hands.

When they finally part, breathless, Rio rests his forehead on Beth’s, and they search each other’s eyes—until Beth surprises herself and bursts out laughing.

Rio smirks at her. “Huh?”

“It’s just—who thought a bar bathroom kiss could feel so… _ romantic _?”

“Oh, that’s what you were gettin’ from this?” Rio asks, shaking his head. “I must be doin’ it wrong, then.”

“Lie,” Beth says, taking her hands back and fixing her hair. 

“I don’t remember agreein’ to play the game.”

“You keep lying, we keep playing,” she parrots back at him.

Rio sucks in a breath and his jaw twitches, but she can tell he’s more amused than annoyed. 

“What makes you think it’s a lie, huh?” he asks, taking the hand that’s not against the wall and fingering the slit in her dress at the very top of her thigh, sliding the fabric between his thumb and pointer. 

He’s trying to distract her and it’s working. It’s hard to think when she feels him abandon the dress and touch her skin, when the pads of his fingers are so close to where she wants them but— 

“Because. You like me.” Unable to keep looking at him as she says it, Beth’s eyes flit down to the buttons on his shirt, before she takes a chance and looks back up at him.

Rio’s head is tilted, like he’s trying to figure her out, like he’s trying to decide how to respond to that.

Seriously—who _ is _ she when she’s with him? Words seem to spill out of her mouth that she’d never planned on saying. 

He finally settles on “Oh, I _ do _, huh?”

“Yes,” Beth says, but it’s quieter. Less brazen.

“Not so sure now?” he asks, dipping his whole hand under her dress as he slides it from her hip to grip her bare ass and yank her closer to him. 

“No, I’m sure,” Beth says, but she’s caught between believing it and wondering if she’s just trying to will it. She fiddles with a button on his shirt, not looking at him. “I know it even if you won’t admit it.”

Rio laughs softly. “Damn, what is this? A confessional? How many Hail Marys you gonna give me?”

Beth purses her lips. He’s not denying it—but he’s not admitting it, either. “Depends. How long are you going to pretend I’m wrong?”

Rio tips his head back and laughs. “Blessed art thou among women. Pray for us sinners, huh?”

“Are you Catholic?” Beth asks, grasping at his comment, trying to know anything at all about him. 

Rio shakes his head, but he’s not denying the Catholicism—he’s just denying her question entirely. He kneads his fingers into her ass and presses his lips to her neck. His tongue is wet on her throat. 

Beth huffs. 

“We on a limited schedule, mama,” he whispers into her skin. “I’m _ tryin’ _ to get you hot and bothered here.”

It’s _ almost _ enough to get her—but she’s desperate to know something about him. Something to justify why she seems to like him so much. 

Plus, he’s so resistant to being known, suddenly it feels like a game. Something she can win from him. 

“Well, I _ am _ bothered. One for two isn’t bad,” Beth says, playing up her annoyance. 

“Fine,” Rio says, pulling back from her sharply. She suddenly feels empty. He surprises her, though. “You get three questions.”

Beth smiles and then kisses him. She’s going to need to think about it—use them wisely. Rio tries to distract her by turning the kiss into something filthy. He moves his hand off her ass and begins to hike up her dress around her hips. He slips his tongue into her mouth as he presses his into her so she can feel just how badly he wants her.

His mouth trails down from her lips to her chin to her clavicle, before he lands at her cleavage, which is basically bursting forth from the dress.

“I wanna touch you,” he says roughly.

“Fine,” Beth says daintily, shrugging, as if she could take it or leave it. 

Rio steps back completely from her so he’s not touching her at all. Beth startles when his voice is suddenly serious. “Now, I like our little games—but I ain’t touchin’ you ‘less I know you really want it. Got it?”

Embarrassed, Beth nods silently. A blush flames across her chest and licks up her neck to her cheeks. She’s pink all over. 

“Good,” he says gruffly. Still, he waits. The gap between them feels enormous, although it can’t be more than a foot. 

“I really want it,” she admits.

“‘Cause you like me, yeah?” he teases. Beth rolls her eyes. If he won’t admit it, she won’t, either. 

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for the super long delay for an update on this! Hope you enjoyed, even though it's a fairly lowkey chapter. :)
> 
> Update 8/2020: So sorry to any new readers -- but this series has been abandoned!


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